Apple Should Hire Musk and Fire Cook

It’s no big secret that Apple under Tim Cook has been, well, an innovation dud. Other than the Apple Watch (meh), Apple hasn’t created a new platform or device.

Yes, they’ve added some features to the iPhone, the most significant of which appears to be egregious overpricedness. Meanwhile, the iPad is stuck in place, nobbled by Cook’s refusal to add a mouse and make it a PC killer because then it would be a MacBook killer, too. So it’s turned into a big shrug.

As for the Macintosh, its software developers have reached the point where its developers are screwing with design features just to prove they can. (This is the programmer’s equivalent of a dog marking its territory.)

For example, the recent Mojave release of MacOS replaces the useful and unique-to-Mac “Cover Flow” file browser with a clunky and near-useless “Gallery Mode.” Hey, Apple, Windows 3 called and wants its GUI back.

Let’s face it: Apple without a visionary at the top is nothing special.

Remember those long lines to get the next iPhone? I’m sure Apple die-hards still exist but, seriously, when was the last time you saw someone get excited about a new Apple product? Crap, even the journalists who cover the company seem bored.

Even Apple’s management knows they’ve lost the edge because apparently the interest on the $237 billion Apple has in the bank seems like a better investment than new product development. Sad.

Which leads us, inexorably, to Elon Musk.

When it comes to innovation, Tesla (and by “Tesla” I mean all of Musk’s companies) under Musk is the exact opposite of Apple under Cook. If anything, Musk creates too much innovation, often too quickly for his company’s ability to manufacture in volume.

As a result, Tesla is struggling with cash flow, even though Musk and his extended team have shown that they can literally do what all the experts said was impossible. Time after time after time.

I’m sure I’m not the first person to notice that Musk has inherited the mantle that Steve Jobs once wore, as avatar of the power of technology to change the world for the better.

So, on the one hand, we have a fabulously rich company (Apple) which can’t innovate because it lacks a visionary. On the other hand, we’ve got a cash-poor company (Tesla) which innovates like, well…, like Apple under Jobs but on mega-steroids.

The solution is simple and obvious. Apple should acquire Tesla and make Musk CEO of the whole shebang. Just imagine the kind innovation that would result! We’d be living in the freakin’ “World of Tomorrow” by 2025.

This will never happen, alas. Apple’s board is way too woodenheaded to even consider something this bold.